NASHVILLE, Tenn. — From April 19 through April 23, Vanderbilt conducted its semiannual, statewide survey — the Vanderbilt Poll. The survey was conducted among 1,003 Tennessee voters and asked questions about gun regulations, abortion access and health care access for the LGBTQ+ community.
Since May 2012, the poll has asked voters to rank which issue should be the state government's top priority. For 20 consecutive years, guns ranked last or nearly last. But in the latest poll, it rose to the third-most important issue behind education and the state's economy.
The poll found that 82% of respondents support strengthening background checks for gun purchases, such as what Governor Bill Lee signed following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. They also said that a majority of respondents supported a "red flag" law that would temporarily restrict gun access to people who are a risk of harming themselves or others.
They asked two questions about it. One asked about the type of legislation in regards to "preventing school shootings" and another question about it in regard to "preventing gun-related violence."
They said 72% of respondents supported the legislation to prevent gun violence, and 75% supported it to prevent school shootings.
“It’s not surprising that support for a red flag law in Tennessee increases when preventing school shootings is mentioned. However, that the baseline of support for such a law only trails by 3 percentage points is an indicator that this support is not a flash in the pan because of The Covenant School shooting,” said. “This close trend is seen with other proposed gun regulations as well.”
They also said around two-thirds of respondents supported laws that would require gun owners to securely store guns.
They also said 82% of respondents believed that abortion treatments should be legal in Tennessee if it would prevent death or serious injury to the pregnant person. They also said 92% of Democrat respondents did not think it should be a crime to help someone get an abortion in another state, along with 82% of Independents. Around 62% of non-MAGA Republicans and 53% of MAGA Republicans agreed, according to the poll.
It also found that 59% of respondents believe mifepristone should still be approved for medicinal abortion treatments.
It also found that around 66% of respondents opposed restrictions to transgender healthcare, and around 25% supported such restrictions. They said the divisions were mostly held across party lines.
The poll found that Lee's approval rating fell by around 4% to 53%, while approval of the Tennessee legislature plummeted. In the fall of 2022, Vanderbilt said respondents had a 55% approval rating for the legislature.
Since then, they said 48% of respondents disapproved of lawmakers, and 43% of respondents approved. They said the legislature's approval is at its lowest level since the Vanderbilt Poll started measuring it in 2012. They said that compared to the fall 2022 survey, Republican approval dropped the most.
